The Eight Wonder of the Ancient World

After reading about the seven wonders of the world back then in secondary school(high school)- the hanging garden of Babylon, the Bermuda triangle, etc., I think I went back to sleep thinking that there would be nothing to leave me wondering if the fact behind the story was really true. But, just yesterday (7^th July, 2010) at about 11:00pm after the German’s 0-1 defeat to the Spaniards, I heard a shocker.

This attendant shock sent a cold chill down my spine and I think *can’t really remember right now* I was benumbed with fear and awe for a couple of seconds, but, I actually remember entering into a heated argument with my room-mates and colleagues including those who brought the bizarre news *Yeah! That’s what I feel about it* to my two antenna-like ears capable of picking up little signals *perhaps a pin’s drop in a pond* from every nook and cranny.

“Hey! Don’t say that again… You think I’m a kid, right?”I protested angrily

“Royalmark! We’re serious. Watched it on CNN while you were busy gaming and writing hubs on your laptop… ” My colleagues replied in unison in a bid to convince me

“OMG! Don’t try weaving me intelligently around your fingers, ok? Of course, you and I know that won’t work” I shouted back at them, and in the process, interrupting them midway through my PES 2010 community cup finals against a fellow colleague

“Well! If you don’t belie…” One of them tried again to get me to their side

“Yeah! I don’t believe any atom of it” I shouted back, helping him complete his hanging statement, though with awe and amazement this time around as I tried looking it up on www.google.com via my mobile browser.

Alright! This was where I actually discovered The 8^th Wonder of the World- an octopus with the psychic power of predicting football matches.

Well! Since he was named Paul, a name attributable to human beings alone, derived from a poem titledDer Tintenfisch Paul oktopus written by a German poet-Boy Lornsen, I rather preferred calling this eight-tentacle sea animal a ‘he’ to an ‘it’. Born *hatched* in Weymouth, England in January, 2008 in Sea Life Centre and later transferred to one of the tanks in Oberhausen, Germany, though Italian press claimed he was captured in April 2010 by Verena Bartsch off the Island of Elba, his career as an oracle of prediction *mind you, I didn’t say perdition* came into existence in the UEFA Euro 2008 tournament where he was presented with two clear plastic boxes containing mussels or oysters, each marked with the German’s flag and the other marked with the opponent’s flag; any of the boxes which he opens first and eats all the food was predicted to be the winner (his method was more dinner than science based).

According to Etienne Roquain of Pierre and Marie Curie University, Professor Chris Budd of the University of Bath, and Professor David Spiegelharter of Cambridge University, Paul’s success is on a par level with a lucky toss of a piece of coin. The trio theorized that his chance of predicting a match was 1/2, casting their gaze off the possibility of a draw since a football match only entails a win-lose situation in most cases. Spiegelharter and Roquain in particular pointed out that there are indeed “other animals that have attempted but failed to predict the outcome of football matches”, and so the likelihood of one animal being more successful than animals and humans alike isn’t remarkable enough because it gains the recognition just because of its success. However, if for whatsoever reason he was attracted to the colours of the German’s and Spaniard’s national flag, then, it would had more than enough success on its predictions.

Many arguments were posited against this ‘oracle’ such as:

-Ability to distinguish brightness as well as an object’s size, shape and orientation, because of their inherent drive towards horizontal shapes.

-The octopus vulgaris species intelligence over all other invertebrates.

-Sensitive chemoreceptors on its tentacles to ‘smell’ the water and taste the food.

-Spatial preference or related factors such as light intensity e.g. Paul, the octopus was fond of choosing the boxes on the right hand, and most times, the box with the German flag on it was always on the right hand side.

Out of his eight (8) predictions, excluding Germany’s 0-1 defeat to Spain, he had a correct 8/8 prediction on the remaining matches which boils down to 100% accuracy level. He started to receive international recognition all over the world after his successful prediction of England’s 0-4 defeat to Germany. Finally, he predicted the winner of the winner of the world cup which turned out to be Spain *I’d rather say, Barcelona won the world cup for a national team consisting of about 6 players in the Barca squad (…lol…)* and a day after this, precisely July 12, 2010, my eight wonder of the world retired from making predictions both in football (where he became popular), lifestyle, politics and/or economy and re-accepted his job of being a comic character to children. Tanja Munzig, of the sea life aquarium in Oberhausen, Western Germany spoke to the world via the press media that “…they had received offers for Paul, but he was not for sale. There are a lot of offers for Paul from betting offices (for their selfish purposes I suppose) and other areas. One thing is clear: Paul is staying with us (Oh my Gosh! So bad for the betting houses and…)” She further added that he would now “step back from the oracle business.”

As a result of his wonderful predictions, he won a world cup trophy (mind you, this is meant for only ‘people’ like him) stuffed with his favourite food-mussels- and presented to him by the aquarium staff in Germany.

Although other oracles such as animals at the Chemnitz Zoo, Leon the porcupine, Petty the pygmy hippopotamus, Anton the tamarin and Mani the parakeet came with their divination during the South Africa 2010 world cup, they didn’t do so well like my friend, Paul.

Hullo! Paul… I’ll definitely miss you during the 2014 world cup that might be held in Brazil.

Thanks for reading my hub and knowing the eight (8) wonder of the world *you never know if your prospective employer/teacher/lecturer might just ask you “What is the eight wonder of the world?”

I’d rather say “Hey! Don’t forget to run back here for assistance if you’ve forgotten the eight wonder of the modern world and also, bring your friends along*….